For many parents , raising a teenager is like fighting a long war ,but years go by without any clear winner . Like a border conflict between neighboring countries ,the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace ,but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict . In part ,this is because neither is willing to admit .any responsibility for starting it . From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ complete unreasonableness. And of course .the teens see it in exactly the same way , except oppositely . Both feel trapped
In this article. I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrels over unimportant things . Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanliness of the bedroom ,the preferred style of clothing , the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school ,or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends .Second ,blaming , the goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong . Third , needing to be right ,It doesn’t matter what the topic is –politics. The taws of physics ,or the proper way to break an egg –the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong .for both wish to be considered an authority --- someone who actually knows something --- and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately , as long as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other ,they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress
55. Why does the author compare the parent—teen war to a border conflict?
A. both can continue for generations .
B. Both are about where to draw the line
C. Neither has any clear winner
D. Neither can be put to an end
56. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict.
B. The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict
C. The teens accuse their parents of misleading them
D. The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents
57.Parents and teens want to be right because they want to ________.
A. give orders to the other
B. know more than the other
C. gain respect from the other
D .get the other to behave properly
58. What will the author most probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?
A. causes for the parent –teen conflicts
B. Examples of the parent –teen war.
C. Solutions for the parent –teen problems
D. Future of the parent-teen relationship
Check out our tsunami facts and learn some interesting information related to these great walls of water that can cause so much destruction. Find out what causes tsunamis and read about some recent examples of tsunamis that have occurred around the globe.
The Japanese word for tsunami means harbor wave.
Tsunamis are sometimes referred to as tidal (受潮汐影响的) waves but this term has fallen out of favor because tsunamis are not related to tides.
Tsunamis are huge waves of water that are usually caused by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.
As a tsunami approaches the shore (海岸), water may move back from the coast. If it is shallow (浅的) enough the water may be pulled back hundreds of meters. If you are in the area, you can know that a tsunami is on the way when you see this phenomenon.
Regions in tsunami danger zones often have warning systems in place to give people as much time as possible to move to a safe place.
When tsunamis hit shallow water (often near the coast) they slow down but increase in height.
An earthquake in the Indian Ocean off Indonesia in December 2004 caused a tsunami that killed over 200,000 people in 14 countries.
In March 2011, the Tohoku earthquake off the eastern coast of Japan caused a tsunami that was a major factor in the death of over 15,000 people.
The tsunami waves created by the Tohoku earthquake reached heights of over 40 meters in some areas, wiping out coastal towns and causing a number of nuclear accidents.How many causes of tsunamis are mentioned in the text?
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
In the Tohoku earthquake over 15,000 people died mainly because of ______.
| A．the earthquake itself |
| B．the lack of warning systems |
| C．the tsunami caused by the earthquake |
| D．the nuclear accidents caused by the tsunami |
What do we learn from the text?
| A．The Japanese invented the term “tidal waves”. |
| B．The term “tidal waves” is used more often than tsunami. |
| C．When tsunamis slow down, their waves can reach 40 meters. |
| D．When hitting shallow water, tsunamis will rise higher. |
The text is developed mainly by ______.
| A．listing some facts | B．giving some examples |
| C．providing some numbers | D．making some comparisons |
Years ago, I lived in a building in a large city. The next building was only a few feet away from mine. There was a woman living there, and I had never met her, yet I could see she sat by her window each afternoon, sewing or reading.
After several months had gone by, I began to notice that her window was dirty. Everything was unclear through the dirty window. I would say to myself. “I wonder why that woman doesn’t wash her window. It really looks terrible.”
One bright morning I decided to clean my flat, including washing the window on the inside.
Late in the afternoon when I finished the cleaning, I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise! Across the way, the woman sitting by her window was clearly visible (看见). Her window was clean!
Then it dawned on me. I had been criticizing (批评) her dirty window, but all the time I was watching hers through my own dirty window.
That was quite an important lesson for me. How often had I looked at and criticized others through the dirty window of my heart, through my own shortcomings?
Since then, whenever I wanted to judge (评判) someone, I asked myself first, “Am I looking at him through my own dirty window?” I try to clean the window of my own world so that I may see the world about me more clearly.The writer couldn’t see everything clearly through the window because _______.
| A．the woman’s window was dirty |
| B．the writer’s window was dirty |
| C．the woman lived nearby |
| D．the writer was near-sighted |
“It dawned on me” probably means “_______”.
| A．I began to understand it | B．it cheered me up |
| C．I knew it grew light | D．it began to get dark |
It’s clear that ________.
| A．the writer had never met the woman before |
| B．the writer often washed the window |
| C．they both worked as cleaners |
| D．they lived in a small town |
From the passage, we can learn _______.
| A．one shouldn’t criticize others very often |
| B．one should often make his windows clean |
| C．one must judge himself before he judges others |
| D．one must look at others through his dirty windows[ |
Most people know that awkward feeling when you step into an elevator（电梯） with other people and try not to make eye contact.
But new research suggests it may be down to a subconscious（潜意识的）power struggle being played out as you make your way up or down.
A study found that people decide where they stand based on a micro social grading, established within seconds of entering the lift.
Rebekah Rousi, a Ph.D. student in Cognitive Science, conducted a study of elevator behavior in two of the tallest office buildings in Adelaide, Australia.
As part of her research, she took a total of 30 lift rides in the two buildings, and discovered there was an established order to where people tended stand.
In a blog, she writes that more senior men seemed to direct themselves towards the back of the elevator cabins.
She said: 'In front of them were younger men, and in front of them were women of all ages.'
She also noticed there was a difference in where people directed their stare half way through the ride.
Men watched the monitors(监控器), looked in the side mirrors (in one building) to see themselves, and in the door mirrors (of the other building) to also watch others.
'Women would watch the monitors and avoid eye contact with other users (unless in conversation) and the mirrors,' she writes.
The student concluded it could be that people who are shyer stand toward the front, where they can't see other passengers, whereas brave people stand in the back, where they have a view of everyone else.According to Rebekah Rousi, senior men intend to stand ______ of the elevator cabins.
| A．in the front | B．in the middle |
| C．near the side mirrors | D．at the back |
The underlined word “ them ” in paragraph 7 refers to ______.
| A．senior men | B．younger women |
| C．younger men | D．Women |
Why do women choose to stand in the front?
| A．Because they are too shy to make eye contact with others. |
| B．Because they can have a view of everyone else. |
| C．Because they want to show their power. |
| D．Because they want to watch the monitors. |
Carrot juice, because of its many healthy benefits, is commonly called the "magic juice". It has been found that adding carrot juice to people’s diets greatly improves their health. And its delicious taste makes it popular with all members of the family as a beverage(饮料).
Carrot juice is one of the richest sources of vitamin A that can be used in the daily diet. Lack of vitamin A can cause dryness and damage to the skin, nails and hair. Drinking carrot juice to increase the vitamin A in the diet is said to be good for many parts of the body, including the bones and teeth.
Drinking carrot juice is thought to be extremely helpful to the liver (肝脏), because vitamin A helps to clean the liver and reduce fat in it. And it is suggested that drinking carrot juice should be done regularly, rather than just from time to time.
Drinking carrot juice is also thought to improve the eyesight because of the vitamin A in the juice. Lack of vitamin A can lead to night blindness, which can be very dangerous, especially when the person is driving a car. An easy way to find out if you are lacking in vitamin A is to walk from a bright room into a dark room. Your eyes may have some trouble in getting used to the change of light if you are lacking in vitamin A.
How can you make carrot juice? Wash some carrots well in cold water. Scrape (刮) them lightly, but do not peel them, as this will take away valuable vitamins and minerals that lie close to the skin.Lack of vitamin A can lead to _____.
| A．broken bones | B．complete blindness |
| C．skin dryness | D．liver cancer |
According to the passage, carrot juice ______.
| A．does a lot of good to the teeth and other parts of the body |
| B．is popular because it is a magic cure for many diseases |
| C．can wash away the waste from the body |
| D．may be harmful to the body if it’s drunk too much |
We can learn from the fourth paragraph that _____.
| A．you will find it easy to get used to the change of light if you lack vitamin A |
| B．driving cars at night may lead to night blindness |
| C．walking from a bright room into a dark room may lead to night blindness |
| D．drinking carrot juice helps to protect your eyesight |
Which would be the best title for this passage?
| A．Tips on How to Make Carrot Juice |
| B．The Great Benefits of Carrot Juice |
| C．The Way to Keep Good Health |
| D．A Healthy Diet for Patients |
Modern inventions have speeded up people’s lives amazingly. Motor-cars cover a hundred miles in little more than an hour, aircraft cross the world a day, while computers operate at lightning speed. Indeed, this love of speed seems never-ending. Every year motor-cars are produced which go even faster each new computer boasts（吹嘘）of saving precious seconds in handling tasks.
All this saves time, but at a price. When we lose or gain half a day in speeding across the world in an airplane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfortable feeling known as jet-lag; our bodies feel that they have been left behind in another time zone. Again, spending too long at computers results in painful wrists and fingers. Mobile phones also have then danger according to some scientists; too much use may transmit harmful radiation into our brains, a consequence we do not like to think about.
However, what do we do with the time we have saved? Certainly not relax, or so it seems. We are so accustomed to constant activity that we find it difficult to sit and do nothing or even just one thing at a time. Perhaps the days are long gone when we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting imaginations take us into another world.
There was a time when some people’s lives were devoted simply to the cultivation of the land or the care of cattle. No multi-tasking there; their lives went on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern. There is much that we might envy about a way of life like this. Yet before we do so, we must think of the hard tasks our ancestors faced; they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to fashion tools from wood and stone. Modern machinery has freed people from that primitive existence.The new products become more and more time-saving because ______.
| A．our love on speed seems never-ending |
| B．time is limited |
| C．the prices are increasingly high |
| D．the manufacturers boast a lot |
What is the author’s attitude towards the modern technology?
| A．Critical | B．Objective |
| C．Optimistic | D．Negative |
What does the passage mainly discuss?
| A．The present and past times |
| B．Machinery and human beings |
| C．Imaginations and inventions |
| D．Modern technology and its influence |